(1. Technical Field of the Invention)
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing several kinds of information media such as a readable and recordable type medium or a read only type medium.
(2. Related Art)
In order to reproduce several kinds of media, it needs to be equipped with functions of recording or reproducing for all kinds of media. The information recording and reproducing apparatus in prior art is described below with reference to FIG. 5. Referring to FIG. 5, a medium determination section 504 examines a presence or a kind of the medium loaded in a drive 105, and transfers information regarding the kind of the medium to a function management section 502. When a user pushes a button corresponding to a recording function or a reproducing function on an input unit 501 such as a remote control unit, a request of the function corresponding to the pushed button is transferred to the function management section 502. If the requested function is performable to a medium with the kind of the loaded medium, the function management section 502 transfers the function request to a function performance section 103 according to information from the input unit 501 and the medium determination unit 504. According to an instruction from the function performance section 103, a recording and reproducing section 108 performs a recording function or a reproducing function which is requested by the user.
For example, when a disc having DVD-RAM format (DVD-RAM disc) is loaded to the drive 105, the medium determination section 504 performs a determination of a kind of the medium, that is, determines that a treatable DVD-RAM disc has been loaded, based on the facts that the loaded disc is a DVD-RAM medium and that logical structure of the DVD-RAM medium is conformable to DVD Video Recording format. The information relating to the determination result is transferred to the function management section 502. When the user pushes a button of xe2x80x9cDIRECT NAVIGATORxe2x80x9d function on the input unit 501, a request for performing the function corresponding to the pushed button is transferred to the function management section 502. The function management section 502 determines whether the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is available as a function to the DVD-RAM disc. The DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is available to the DVD-RAM disc, and thus a request for the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is transferred to the function performance section 103. According to the request, the function performance section 103 reproduces data for the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function to the DVD-RAM disc, and sends a request for presenting the DIRECT NAVIGATOR screen to the display unit 107.
When a disc having DVD-Video format (DVD-Video disc) is loaded to the drive 105, the medium determination section 504 similarly performs a determination of a kind of the medium, that is, determines that DVD-Video disc has been loaded, based on the facts that the loaded disc is a DVD-ROM medium and that logical structure of the DVD-ROM medium is conformable to DVD-Video format. The information regarding the determination result is transferred to the function management section 502. Similar to the above-described case, when the user pushes a button of xe2x80x9cDIRECT NAVIGATORxe2x80x9d on the input unit 501, a request for the function corresponding to the pushed button is transferred to the function management section 502. The function management section 502 determines whether the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is available as a function to the DVD-Video disc. Since the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is not available to the DVD-Video disc, the function management section 502 does not transfer the request to the function performance section 103.
In the information recording and reproducing apparatus to record or reproduce several kinds of media as described above, available or performable functions are different depending on kinds of the media. Therefore, the input unit 501 such as the remote control unit as shown in FIG. 5 has to be equipped with some operation buttons provided for each function. Further, since the DIRECT NAVIGATOR function is not available to the DVD-Video disc as described above, the user has to recognize available functions corresponding to kinds of the media, and select and use the operation buttons.
The present invention is directed to enable the user to perform easily a desired function without buttons is provided on the input section such as a remote controller unit and provided for every function depending on a kind of the medium, even when the user does not recognize functions which can be performed depending on a kind or a state of the medium.
In a first aspect of the invention, provided is an information recording and reproducing apparatus which records or reproduces information signal onto or from an information medium. The apparatus includes a determination section, a function management section, a function selecting section, and a display control section. The function management section manages one or more of functions available to each kind or state of the medium. The determination section determines at least one of a kind and a state of-the medium. The function selecting section selects functions which can be performed from the managed functions according to the determination result of the determination section. The display control section generates data for displaying a list of functions selected by the function selecting section.
The function management section may manage functions which can be performed regardless of the kind of the medium.
The display control section may control the display unit to display distinctively the function which can be performed according to the state of the medium and the function which can not be performed according to the state of the medium.
The apparatus may further include a section to determine a state of the apparatus. The display control section may control the display unit to display distinctively the function which can be performed according to the state of the apparatus and the function which can not be performed according to the state of the apparatus.
A button for the function available in common with all kinds of media may be disposed at the same position on the list of functions despite of the kind or the state of the medium.
A button for the function having a high frequency of use may be disposed in the vicinity of the center of the list of functions.
In a second aspect of the invention, provided is a method of controlling an information recording and reproducing apparatus which records or reproduces information signal onto or from an information medium. The method includes managing functions for recording and functions for reproduction, determining at least one of a kind and a state of the medium, selecting functions which can be performed from the managed functions according to the determination result, and controlling a display unit to display a list of selected functions.
According to the present invention, a list screen of functions of the information recording and reproducing apparatus is displayed, in which the function can be performed by user""s pushing the button displayed on the screen via the input section such as the remote control unit. Thus it does not need to provide dedicated buttons for functions on the input unit such as the remote control unit, resulting in reduction of buttons on the input unit. Further, functions are listed and displayed according to a kind of the medium (such as recordable and readable type medium, or read only type medium), a state of the medium (such as a presence of format, or write protection), or a state of the apparatus, thereby a desired function can be performed by selecting the available item. Thus, the user can easily use the information recording and reproducing apparatus, and easily perform a desired function.